On Democracy, and casting the first stone

Did you spot that news item about Nicholas Sarkozy? The one drawing attention to the largish sum paid into his bank account to help with expenses incurred in getting himself elected President of the French Democratic Republic? Who was the generous donor? The late lamented Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. What was the sum involved? Fifty million euros!

Take their money - then bomb them!

It was one of those things you could easily miss - I came across it buried deep inside my local Turkish daily. I checked it online, of course, and found references in the Guardian and the Telegraph. Apparently one of the sources was Gaddafi’s son who, not a little miffed at French participation in Barack Obama’s ‘Operation Bring Democracy to Libya by Bombing the Crap out of them’, was suggesting Sarkozy might consider giving the money back.  If it’s true, Gaddafi Jnr has a point. But apart from that question, the news item raised a few other issues in my mind.  The first was the matter of media censorship. I've just finished reading a book entitled ‘Censored 2012’. Apparently the authors have been issuing such a yearbook since 1976 so I'm a little ashamed it took me so long to get on to it. Well, better late than never, and if you haven't discovered it yourself, you really should.

Essentially, it deals with how the corporate media manipulate us rank and file suckers in a modern democracy by: a - declining to cover certain stories you might think we would want to know about; b - filling their pages and screens with sensationalist trivia in the guise of news; and c - if they do find themselves obliged by circumstances to cover some story that they would prefer hushed up, focusing on some insignificant or human interest aspect, thereby trivialising the story, or at least drawing attention away from the main issue.

So, back to Czar Nicholas and his Libyan backers. Maybe I'm wrong here. Perhaps French voters knew about Gaddafi's financial sponsorship when they elected a new president back in 2007, but somehow I doubt it. Would it have made a difference? It's hard to say. But at least they should have had the chance to consider it as one of the factors to weigh alongside the sex appeal of his trophy wife. And then there is the question of what ‘Chairman’ Muammar thought he was buying with his 50 million euros. You’d have to suspect that there was something more than simple admiration for Sarkozy, or starry-eyed Francophilia involved.

Well, I’m a firm believer in democracy, even if largely because the alternatives, on the whole, seem less attractive. Still, when you look at the shady characters in charge of countries generally held up as models of liberty, equality and brotherhood, it’s hard not to get a little cynical.

Some of my readers may be too young to remember British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and may be swayed towards a positive impression by Meryl Streep’s recent Oscar-winning performance on the silver screen. The so-called ‘Iron Lady’ assumed the top spot in the UK government in 1979, and proceeded to implement a programme of financial deregulation, ‘flexible labour markets’ (read ‘planned unemployment’), privatization of state-owned companies and breaking the trade unions. Given the widespread pain and suffering she caused, it is unlikely Maggie would have made a second term in the job, if the military junta in Argentina hadn’t created a magic moment for her by ‘invading’ the Falkland Islands in April 1982. Check your atlas, by the way. The islands lie approximately 450 km off the coast of Argentina, and some 1500 km from the capital, Buenos Aires. When PM Maggie dispatched the might of the British armed forces (at enormous expense to the British taxpayer) to reclaim the sub-arctic rocks, Vulcan bombers were required to undertake the longest bombing raid in history (up to that time at least) to make the 15,000 km round trip from their RAF base on Ascension Island. Luckily the Brits had managed to retain that mid-Atlantic outpost, since a round trip from Mother England herself would have been nearer 30,000 km.

Well, I don’t want to get into a debate on the rights and wrongs of the Brits retaining control of the Falklands. For my purposes here, the point is that the Ferrous Female used the opportunity to establish a ‘War Cabinet’, play the patriotic card for all it was worth, and remind Brits of the great days of Winston Churchill, Rule Britannia and God Save the King. Never mind that her policies laid the foundation for the disparities of wealth, the financial bubble, the social unrest and the economic crisis from which Britain has still not recovered. She went on to become the UK’s longest-serving Prime Minister of the 20^th century.

Still, at least Margaret the Magnificent was a Tory, and if you vote for them, you pretty much know what to expect. Their cards are mostly on the table. But enough is enough, I guess, and after 21 years of Conservative government, the British voter decided to give the Labour Party a chance to introduce a little humanity. Enter Tony Blah, public school-educated face of the ‘New Left’. Let’s look at some of his achievements, during and after his term as UK PM:


- Introduced the minimum wage, Human Rights Act, Freedom of Information Act and established local Assemblies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Sounds good, but largely sops for neo-leftist middle class liberals. In no way did these measures address the underlying social problems that motivated the August 2011 riots or the ‘Occupy St Pauls-in-the-City’ movement.

- Gained a reputation as the undisputed master of political spin with the assistance of his press secretary, later Director of Communications, Alastair Campbell. Mr Campbell resigned in 2003 in the furore that erupted over the so-called Hutton Report. It was widely believed that Blair’s government manipulated the official inquiry to produce a whitewash of events related to the suspicious death of whistle-blower, David Kelly. The essence of the accusations was that Blair’s government had ‘knowingly sexed-up’ the report into Iraq and its ‘weapons of mass destruction’ on which UK participation in the invasion was based. So how deep does the commitment to human rights and freedom of information run?

- Just happens to be the little brother of Sir William James Lynton Blair, eminent QC specializing in domestic and international banking and finance law. In 2008, Sir William was appointed Judge of the High Court in the Queen’s Bench Division, interestingly, the forum that decides whether government decisions can be challenged on legal grounds. Earlier, in 2003, the older Blair had been admitted as a Barrister of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in the British Virgin Islands, a relatively little-known outpost of empire whose main economic activity is licensing offshore companies. According to Wikipedia, there were more than 800,000 companies registered there in 2008, of which around half were ‘active’. I guess Sir William could tell us what the other half are doing. I couldn’t find who actually arranged for this gentleman to get a knighthood – but no doubt it was awarded for ‘services to finance and banking.’

- Earned the nickname of Bush’s ‘poodle’ while in office, for his sycophantic determination to follow the US President wherever he led. This behaviour gave rise to the neologism ‘Poodle-ism’ – and George Dubya’s term of endearment, ‘Yo Blair’ gained a certain currency.

- Converted to Roman Catholicism shortly after leaving office. Undoubtedly this would have been an unpopular move had he done it while serving as Prime Minister to the Sovereign Head of the Church of England. Nevertheless, if it was a matter of faith and conscience, you’d wonder if you didn’t detect a touch of hypocrisy there.

- Has maintained a close relationship with Rupert Murdoch since his days in Opposition. That same Murdoch whose News Corporation owns the London Times, the Wall St Journal, the New York Post and Fox News and other major ‘news’ outlets too numerous to mention. That same News Corporation whose UK tabloid News of the World was forced to close down in July 2011 amidst a scandal involving phone hacking, accusations of police corruption, resignations and prison sentences for high-ranking employees. The relationship is so close that in 2011, Blair became godfather to Murdoch’s youngest daughter Chloe, in a ceremony held on the banks of the Jordan River. Tony was apparently robed in white for the occasion. Appropriate I guess, given that he signed the visitor’s book in the British Embassy in Washington DC in January 2009, stating his home as ‘Jerusalem’. Perhaps we’ll see him running for Pope before too long.

- Appears to have amassed a tidy fortune in the short time since he left office, assuming that he hadn’t made a good start beforehand. His main activities are said to be speaking engagements, advising ‘foreign governments’ and running an ‘interfaith charitable foundation’ called the Tony Blah Faith Foundation, whose aims seem somewhat hazy, but which nevertheless seems to manage a sizeable budget and pay largish salaries to its officers. The Blairs are said to own nine properties, including a £4 million stately home, two houses in London, and a million pound maisonette for their 22 year-old student daughter to live in.


Is it any wonder that voter turnout in UK General Elections has plummeted from an average of 75% between 1945 and 1997? In the three elections since 2001, between 35 and 40% of the British voting public have not bothered exercising their right to vote. And when you consider that 20% of those who do bother, cast vain votes for the Liberal Democrats, it looks like a pretty major case of disillusionment with the democratic process. What can you say? If that’s what goes on in the home of parliamentary democracy, constitutional monarchy and human rights, what hope is there for the rest of the world? But let’s take a look anyway.

George W Bush was inaugurated as President of the USA in January 2001 after the narrowest of victories, and much unpleasantness over the decisive vote counting in the state of Florida. Anyone in politics has to be prepared to receive criticism, but in Bush’s case the criticism tended more towards ridicule. There is a website on which you can find examples of his inimitable mangling of the English language, for instance:

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." - Washington, D.C., August 5, 2004

All that seemed to change, however, after 11 September. George W became the avenging angel, visiting retribution upon the Islamic world, with scant regard for proof of guilt. It’s hard to imagine the 43^rd President would have got a second term in office if not for the patriotic fervour unleashed by the 9/11 disaster. Good for George, but less of a blessing for the hundreds of thousands of citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq, who paid with their lives for Bush’s second four years.

I have a theory that the US Republican Party really didn’t want to win the 2008 Presidential election. They knew the chickens of Bush’s hatching would be coming home to roost in the next four years – the cataclysmic financial collapse of Wall St and the subsequent astronomical taxpayer-funded bailout; and the shame of another withdrawal from another military debacle, whatever brave spin is put upon it. They were quite happy to let the Democrats have a term in office, obliged to carry out the dirty work necessitated by Bush’s war-mongering, financial deregulation and tax-cuts for the rich. President Obama has obligingly complied because, like ‘Third Way’ Blair in the UK, he and his party have become implementers of policies determined by the financial/industrial/media matrix that has subverted democracy in the UK and the USA.

Mr Obama’s actions since assuming the Presidency have made him complicit in the Wall St banking industry’s cynical destruction of the global economy. What has become of Greg Smith, the Goldman Sachs executive-director who blew the whistle on his former employers? Replying to Smith’s claims that the company’s working environment was ‘toxic and destructive’, and that his colleagues often referred to clients as ‘muppets’, the worst thing GS management seemed able to say was that Smith represented a ‘minority opinion’ within the company. Well, no doubt he would, given that the majority of his colleagues were primarily concerned with taking money off the rest of us ‘muppets’.

In an issue that directly affects Turkey, Barack Obama, the Presidential candidate, made it clear that he supported the aims of the Armenian diaspora to have the modern Turkish Republic held responsible for the event sometimes referred to as the ‘Armenian Genocide’. Since taking office he seems to have eased his foot off the gas pedal of this issue – one assumes because upsetting Turkey to the extent that would necessitate, is not in the US’s strategic interests in the Middle East. You can’t help wondering how much Obama in opposition was influenced by the violent methods of Armenian activists, one of whom came narrowly close to assassinating George W Bush on a visit to Georgia in May 2005. Perhaps French President Sarkozy is running scared of the Armenians too, considering his apparent enthusiasm for their dubious cause. Or maybe the Turkish Government just didn’t offer a high enough price for his support.

So how did Turkey find its way into this discussion of democracy? My point is that politicians and ‘news’ media in the developed world seem to delight in lambasting Turkey for its abuses of human rights and freedoms, and use these as justification for holding Turkey at arm’s length in its attempts to forge closer ties with Europe. On 18 February, Turkey celebrated its 60^th year as a key member of the NATO Alliance, having served as a major bulwark against Soviet expansion and aggression during the Cold War. For almost as long, Turkey has been waiting patiently in the queue to join the European Union, while other countries with more dubious credentials leap ahead.

In November last year, Greece got a new Prime Minister tasked with digging the country out of its financial hole. In a meeting behind closed doors, elected politicians apparently ‘selected’ Lucas Papademos, a 64 year-old former banker and European Central Bank vice-president, governor of the Reserve Bank of Greece, and a gentleman who has evidently spent a good number of years living in the USA and immersing himself in that nation’s dodgy economic and financial systems. I haven’t been able to learn whether this kind of ‘selection’ is authorised by the constitution in a land which takes pride in being the home of democracy itself. For sure, it’s hard to imagine Mr Papademos being successful in a normal Greek election, especially since he wasn’t even in parliament. You can’t help feeling that he was most likely foisted upon them by the European big boys’ club. Well, mature democracies can’t have military coups, can they? In the post-modern world, the trans-national banking elite have more sophisticated methods at their disposal.

So it seems we have a new -ocracy that is beginning to replace democracy in Western European nations . . . The new system, as far as I can understand it, is to be called ‘technocracy’. Around the same time as Mr Papademos was ‘selected’ in Greece, a similar scenario saw another ‘academic economist’, 69 year-old Mario Monti emerge from the chaos of Silvio Berlusconi’s administration in Italy. At least Mr Monti comes to the job with a reputation for taking on monopolies, bankers and other vested interests – but still, it does strike me that sidestepping the democratic process by appointing a Prime Minister and cabinet from the worlds of business, bureaucracy and academia could be the beginning of a slippery slope. Whatever people inside and outside Turkey think of PM Tayyip Erdoğan, his party did win a majority in parliamentary elections, and is answerable to the voting public for its actions.

Well, it wouldn’t be fair for me to heap criticism on these bastions of Western democracy, and gloss over the shenanigans in my own native New Zealand. Prime Minister John Key’s National (Tory) government has been shaken by a number of high-level scandals in recent months. One of his own cabinet ministers had to resign after being implicated in cronyism related to a major claim made to the Accident Compensation Commission. So far, Key himself has managed to prevent the mud from sticking, but he is definitely ducking and weaving.

Less fortunate have been two former National Party Justice Ministers who, in their capacity as directors of the failed finance company, Lombard, have been convicted of making false statements to investors. I guess I should feel some pride in my own country, since at least the courts and the police have shown themselves capable of bringing high-flying ‘bankers’ to justice. Sir Douglas Graham’s political connections and knighthood from the Queen probably saved him and his buddies from prison. However, three directors of another collapsed investment company, Bridgecorp, seem certain to spend time behind bars. Two high profile New Zealanders, one a former captain of the national All Black rugby team, and the other a respected South Island businessman, might well have faced similar disgrace had not the Good Lord intervened on their behalf and subsumed them in His eternal embrace.

I see, from my vantage point in Turkey that Mr Key’s government in New Zealand are continuing their campaign to get rid of the proportional representation electoral system brought in nearly twenty years ago as a result of a series of electoral petitions and referenda. The corporate/political/media clique are desperate to return to the old two-party first-past-the-post system (as used in the USA and the UK) which is much easier to manipulate and control. Probably they will succeed in the end, but it will be a sad loss for the people of New Zealand. The chances of convicting and imprisoning former cabinet ministers who swindled ma and pa investors out of their life savings will be that much smaller.

It must be evident to anyone not looking at their world through rose-coloured lenses, or without a vested interest in maintaining the survival of a financial/political elite, that democracy is under serious threat in countries where we assumed it was safe. The ‘Occupy Wall St’ protestors may not have a unified solution to the problem of economic inequalities, but they know what they don’t want. Turkey may take a few journalists into custody from time to time (though the definition of ‘journalist’ seems to be debatable, but is that any worse than countries where control of the media is so monopolised that dissenting voices can rarely even be heard?  It would be difficult to find a nation in the modern world that does not have a dark secret or two in its past, of repression and violence against minorities or indigenous inhabitants. Turning back the clock of history is impossible, and making reparations for past wrongs, a process that needs careful handling. Responding positively to pressure groups employing terrorist tactics is never likely to produce long-term peace and stability.

As they emerged victorious in 1922 from their War of Liberation, leaders of the fledgling Turkish Republic refrained from seizing former territories beyond their essential Anatolian heartland. Subsequent governments have shown themselves equally unwilling to engage in military action beyond their borders. Setting one’s own house in order before criticising or attacking others is an age-old adage. It seems that major powers in the Western world have much to do in their own backyards. Perhaps they should get on with the job.